Confessions of an Addict 23

The Adventures of a Clueless Blogger.

It only took one day for me to deliberate on whether or not I should take the plunge. The factors that initially put the fear of migration weren’t even in the forefront once I set the wheels in motion. What I thought was going to be a rigorous process of moving from Blogger to WordPress wasn’t really all that hard. With a simple query on Google, you literally have the answers right in your hand. That was simple enough. That’s what I thought at first, at least. Well, let me tell you, it’s not.

I stalked Forever 17’s blog, because I knew Sara had recently done a switch. I needed some help; there were a lot things that I really didn’t know how to do. There were widgets upon widgets and buttons that I didn’t know how to make. I also wanted to amalgamate all the reviews I’ve posted in the last 2.5 years. What I initially thought was a relatively stress free migration was really not. First of all, I had no clue that creating a FREE WordPress blog pretty much wasted the money I spent on Go Daddy. Second of all, by using the free WordPress platform, there are things that I may not be able to do, like making any changes to my chosen THEME. In any case, all that is superficial. I’m sure there are other things that are limited to anyone using the free platform. So I recruited the help of Ashley from Creative Whim. I drove her nuts, but she’s been real patient with me.

Initially, I decided to go with what’s called, WordPress Hosting. Where I would pay a monthly fee for security, backup, and thousands of themes and plugins. This would also mean that I can pay someone to create a theme specific to what I want. After a few tries, I wasn’t happy. The design that I was initially in love with didn’t agree with me after a few days. And honestly, I’ve already created a free site that I thought was more, me. So then, I went back to Ashley with many regrets and told her I will not be going that way. She was pretty surprised. I think it was the first time someone has gone back asswards on her. I feel guilty. She spent hours and hours of time trying to get me to where I’d feel at home with the new site, but it was just not working out. I needed to be happy with my new home though. Needless to say, all that time, money and effort wasted because I could not make up my mind.

For the last few days, I’ve lived and breathed WordPress; trying to acclimate myself on the ins and outs of this site has been an eye opener of sorts. Once I figured out how to create a post, I was off to the races. If I were a little intimidated before, some research erased all my fears. To be honest, it’s much more user-friendly. Images are easy to upload, and the justifications are just as easy to figure out. And honestly, I’m a huge fan of the minimalist look; I feel I’ve achieved that on the design.

A couple of nights ago, I deleted my blog on Blogger without redirecting visitors to my new site. Dumb. Good thing I’m able to undelete within the 90-day period. On top of that, I signed up for a hop that ends tomorrow. Meaning, whoever bookmarked that giveaway would not be able to find me. It was a clusterf**k of epic proportions. It’s just been a stressful week.

I still have ways to go; I’m still working on moving my reviews into one archive. Had I stayed with the paid WordPress subscription, I’d been able to take advantage of a certain Plugin that will enable me to copy all these reviews into one page. But since I didn’t…I’ll have to suck it up.

I have spent so much sleepless nights and money trying to get this going. If this is something that you’re thinking of doing, do your due diligence and research. Don’t be like me. Don’t be wishy-washy. This is something you can’t afford to do.

I’d like to thank my family for putting up with my foul mood for the last week.